Dirty Limbs frontman goes lo-fi (like, really) on new solo release

Plus, Tiny Desk Concert entries from Danielle Rondero and The Nitty Gritty, Fatty Cakes and the Puff Pastries

Jonathan Low-Fi is the reimagined alter ego/stage name for Jonny Trash, the frontaman guitarist/singer for the Fresno proto-punkers Dirty Limbs.

Trash has played in a few Fresno projects at this point, including Brother Luke’s Comrades and one of Rademacher’s later lineups (where he played as Jon Hadden).

With the Lo-Fi project, Jonathan has abandoned Dirty Limbs’ fidgety chaos and electric guitar noise, and dived deep into voice-and guitar acoustic folk tunes.

“To be honest I can’t dress it up anyway to be presentable. Am I going to tell a story where it all works out? Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t,” Jonathan writes, in describing his first collection of solo music.

“I suppose it began with my obsession with trains as a young kid. The long powerful hollar Whoooo Whoooo Whoooo. This is what this collection of songs is about. A note about leaving a cult. A heartache within myself, losing a friend, losing a war ... but the train tracks still continue ... See ya down the road.”

Released on Friday, “Notes of Love and Truth, Lies and Good Byes,” really earns the lo-fi (or low-fi) tag. Aside from the simple instrumentation (Jonathan’s voice over acoustic guitar strumming), the six songs were recorded on four-track cassette and carry a feeling of real age.

On repeat: “The Concrete Lady,” which is the most old-timey and traditionly folky tune of the bunch.

You can see Jonathan Lo-Fi April 9 at Porch Fest, playing with Matryoshka, on a lineup that also includes Awahnichi, Dad Noises and Robot J35u5.

Tiny Desk Concerts — Fresno folks

This week NPR closed applications for its 2022 Tiny Desk Contest, “the nationwide search for the next great undiscovered artist to play a Tiny Desk concert.” The idea here is unsigned bands create videos of themselves performing live, ala a Tiny Desk.

Those videos are then seen by a panel of judges and a winner is chosen to play their very own Tiny Desk concert (and also appear on NPR’s All Things Considered and headline the five-stop Tiny Desk Contest On The Road tour).

This year, Fresno contestants included:

Danielle Rondero and The Nitty Gritty, which recorded a version of its song “Heartsick.” It’s a horn-laden rhythmic soul funk jam.

Rondero is a known singer in town, having fronted several projects, including the Amy Winehouse tribute Back to Black. The Nitty Gritty is her current backing band, which bills itself Fresno’s soul/funk wrecking crew (several familiar faces pop up playing in the video).

The group will be in the studio in April working on new, original material.

Fatty Cakes and the Puff Pastries, which recorded a version of a new, unreleased track called “Cat Nap.” While the video holds to all of the band’s classic aesthetics (including that speaking intro from singer Amber Fargano), the song itself clocks in at close to six minutes long and hints at a new direction for the band.

That’s it for this week. Remember you can now hear me on the Homegrown Show Sundays at 8 p.m. on New Rock 104.1 FM. If you have anything you think I need to be looking at or listening to, feel free to let me know: jtehee@gmail.com